To Choose Our Sins
by ShadowPillow
Summary: Ed has a choice: to undo the past and never commit the taboo, therefore losing all the experiences and journeys the Elric brothers had together, or live on with the pain of their sins. Post-2003, pre-CoS, but with Brotherhood/manga elements such as Truth.
1. To Choose Our Sins

**Summary:  
><strong>Ed has a choice: to undo the past and never commit the taboo, therefore losing all the experiences and journeys the Elric brothers had together, or live on with the pain of their sins. Post-2003, pre-CoS, but with Brotherhood/manga elements such as Truth.

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><p>AN: Hello, everybody. I should be finishing up Alternate Identity, since I'm almost done with it, but instead, here I am typing up this. It's a story idea I got in Starbucks for some reason... And so I am writing it now. By the way, it starts out third person, for just this chapter, and then switches to first person. It works. It starts right after Envy stabs Ed. Truth is in here because it's easier to work with a visible "antagonist" and really, who cares about logic (I do...)? And if it were post-Brotherhood Ed, I think he would've chosen the other option, and so this story wouldn't have existed at all (except as a one-shot).

Pre-story speech done, welcome to my story, and enjoy.

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><p><strong>To Choose Our Sins<strong>

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><p>"You died." It was a blunt statement, a statement spoken by Truth. After all, that was his nature.<p>

And it was the truth. Ed had died again.

"So why am I here?" he asked, watching Truth warily. "Last time I came to the Gate, you didn't bother interfering." A lecherous grin grew on the white being's face.

"I simply want to offer you a choice, Mister Alchemist." The title was dragged out, almost playful, and Ed grew even more suspicious. What was Truth up to now?

He spoke. He asked him. He offered the choice.

"_Would you take it all back if you could? The Human Transmutation? Everything?_" The words were spoken with a heavy weight, an uncharacteristic seriousness.

Ed froze. His mind desperately denied the words spoken by Truth's mouth. The bastard only wanted to play with him. Mess with his mind. It wasn't possible.

"What are you playing at?" Ed finally said, his voice tight. Truth gave an eerie laugh.

"Oh no. Not playing. I'm quite serious. Would you choose to undo your worst mistake, at the cost of your past?"

"I – I –" Why couldn't he agree? Why was he suddenly feeling so hesitant? This was the opportunity he had longer for ever since that day. To undo the sin that they had committed.

"You can take all the time you'd like." Ed's gaze snapped back to Truth. "But I'd suggest making it quick. Your brother might do something reckless."

Ed paled. The philosopher's stone. Al might use it and...

Try to bring Ed back.

The thought immediately repulsed him. Al wouldn't try to do something like that. Not after –

The Human Transmutation. And here was Truth, offering to undo it all. Al wouldn't have to live without his body, trapped inside a hollow shell. He would still be living like he should, carefree and happy.

"Alright," Ed found himself saying. "Undo it all. So Al can live..."

Dimly, he could make out Truth shaking his head. Sad whispered words: "And I thought you had learned something."

Then the world of the Fullmetal Alchemist ended.


	2. Innocence

A/N: The truth is, I need to have an author's note for formatting reasons (that weird chapter selection thing to the right). Otherwise, centering the title of the chapter would actually be off-center. Somehow it always turns into a rant. But... Well, I'll try to keep it short. This chapter now skips back to the very beginning, and this story will then proceed in chronological order. And of course, the first person. Ed's POV always, although I'd like to write an actual story (not a oneshot) entirely from Al's, but that wouldn't work for this one. But huh, this is weird. Instead of writing it out, I typed this all directly on here. Oops. (That means this story got updated before Alternate Identity)

Hey, or I could just put a disclaimer above every chapter. I should actually do that right now. I don't own FMA, all that. Sorry, I sometimes forget to put it. Just assume that Ed and Al or other FMA characters, as well as HP or whatever else I write, don't belong to me. Well, enjoy!

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><p><strong>Innocence<strong>

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><p>On that day, we lost our innocence. A wilted flower suddenly losing its petals.<p>

Mom had died. Now all we had was each other.

I stood over the grave. Tears refused to make their way out. How could I cry now, when so many had already been shed over the past few days?

Al had no such reservations. His body had still-hidden reserves, water constantly pouring from his eyes. He was kneeled over the grave, sobbing for all he was worth.

Ed felt so disconnected from it. From everything. Mom had just died. Mom. How were they going to live without her?

"Ed... I'm hungry... And I'm cold..." Al asked, voice shaky and small. "How are we going to live without her?"

"I –" My throat caught. I felt different. Disconnected. Maybe I was supposed to say something else but... "I don't know, Al."

I didn't know anything anymore.

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><p>There was a thunderstorm one day. It seemed appropriate, a constant downpour of rain to match our grim moods. But the river was now flooding, and the adults were trying to pile sand to stop it from reaching the village. Al had said we needed to help, to try to put the little alchemy we knew to use.<p>

But what good could we do? We were only two small kids, two small kids without their mother. Lost in a world without Mom. Mom was dead. She was never coming back. Still, my mind refused to accept it. Her loving smile... We would never see it again? Never?

I chose to blame the Bastard. He had never come home. Not even for her funeral. It was his fault she was dead... His fault that she had wasted away rather than going to the doctor and curing her sickness. She could have, I knew. The doctors had said it. It was all the Bastard's fault.

Now Al wanted to help others. The village. I went with him because he was my innocent little brother. We were all he had left, and him, I would always protect.

We splashed through puddles of rain to the fort the adults were building, holding a paper with an alchemic circle in hand. All we had to do was raise the components of the ground up, so that a wall would be formed that the rain wouldn't get through. It was easy. We put our hands on the transmutation circle, and it worked, powered by the intense concentration of our minds. The rock in the ground, up, up, up...

It failed. It came crashing down, a useless effort. The river would flood, and we had been useless in stopping it.

Again. Helpless. Like when Mom was dying. We couldn't save her either.

But then... Something happened. A miracle.

It came in the form of a woman.

She clapped her hands, _clapped her hands without a transmutation circle_, and suddenly, the ground burst up to stop the river's flow. It was an impressive feat, and had been done without a transmutation circle.

Without a transmutation circle.

And then she coughed blood, falling to her knees. The adults immediately took her up to the inn, where a warm place to rest would be for our savior. The one who had stopped the river from flooding our town.

It stuck with me then. All this good that she had done, with a simple clap of the hands.

"Al?" I said hesitantly. His widened eyes turned to me.

"What is it?"

"Do you think..." I took a deep breath. A deep breath. I had to ask him. "Do you think... That if we learned more about alchemy..." There was something else there, something that I could possibly say or even _think_, in the back of my mind, but no, that wasn't right. We could never do something like that. "Do you think we could help people? So that nothing like..." My throat constricted again. I couldn't say it. But Al understood, a bright smile lighting his face.

"You're right! Mom always loved it when we did alchemy." I nodded, finding some sort of encouragement in his words. A warmth at _her _name. Mom.

"So..." A wicked grin filled my face, the kind that hadn't appeared since that day. "Let's get that old hag to teach it to us."

A miracle indeed.

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><p>Unfortunately, that miracle wasn't very cooperative.<p>

"I'm not looking on to take any students," she said, not even looking at us. "And besides, I have a store to run. I need to get back to Dublith."

We saw our opportunity. And we took it.

"Please take us with you!" Al was holding on to her leg, and I was clinging to her arm. "Make us apprentices!"

"Oh, shut up!" She began waving her arms and we hung on for our dear lives. We _had _to get her to take us. We had to.

Finally, we were safely on the ground again, looking up into her angry face.

"What are you trying to accomplish by learning alchemy anyway? Just tell me that?" She was panting heavily, and we quickly leapt away from her to the floor.

"I... Um..." I glanced at Al, before finally looking back at her. "We want to help others out!" She frowned.

"And do you have your parents permission?"

Somehow, it cut even deeper. Mom was dead. We _couldn't _have her permission for anything. Because she was gone, gone, gone...

"I'm afraid they have no parents." My gaze whipped up to Granny Pinako. "I've been looking up for them since their mother passed on."

I tried my best to put on a determined expression when she looked at me then, to show how much I really wanted to learn alchemy. To prevent this tragedy once more. And it seemed to have worked because she put on an annoyed expression and finally said, "It always happens. I'm just too nice." She crouched down next to us. "I'll give them one month. Do you mind if I take them with me for that long? I'll test them to see if they're even worth teaching alchemy to in the first place. See if they have the right talents."

"And what happens if you find out they don't?" Pinako asked, a concerned furrow to her brows.

"Then I'll send them back right away."

"But what if we pass?" Al asked. "What'll happen then?" It seemed to take forever, as she turned and gave us a light smile.

"Then we'll begin your alchemy training."

It was hope at last.


End file.
